NHL: Panthers pummel Flyers

PHILADELPHIA — Since a cumbersome schedule often creates opportunity for second-day letdowns, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette wasn’t going to wait for his usual middle-of-the-first-period bell to conduct his nightly team meeting.

Instead, one night after a gritty and emotional victory in Pittsburgh, Laviolette brought his team together for a not-so typical heart to heart before a game against the Florida Panthers that carried a certain numerical importance.

“It’s a big game tonight. You want to make this game mean something; it’s an opportunity to get back to a starting point,” Laviolette said. “We’ve been sub-far the entire season so far and I think the guys recognize that. It’s been a rough ride, a very tough ride in regard to a lot of things. Tonight is a chance to get back and take a quick breath.”

With that kind of inspirational motivation to spark a hunger to get back to .500 for the first time since the season started, the Flyers went out on Wells Fargo Center ice and promptly laid a tin egg, losing 5-2 to the Panthers.

Along the way, Ilya Bryzgalov, perhaps a bit of a surprise starter since he’d started 16 of 18 games, and had gone the distance in the 6-5 Wednesday night win over the Penguins, was yanked after giving up four goals on 15 shots. One of those, exhibiting Bryzgalov’s greatest weakness, came on a penalty shot.

As bad as Bryzgalov so often looks in shootouts, he was made to look twice as terrible by rookie Jonathan Huberdeau (two goals, two assists), who stutter-stepped, did a jig, coaxed Bryzgalov into a spastic break dance routine and flipped the puck over him to bring on the boos.

It was beautifully ugly, really.

While Huberdeau dominated the evening with two goals and assists, he was ably helped by Peter Mueller, with two goals. Proof positive that the Panthers — who were missing top forward Kris Versteeg — are usually a one-line team.

They really shouldn’t be coming into Wells Fargo Center scoring five goals.

So aside from the usual hints that a little more shootout practice is needed at the Skate Zone, Bryzgalov’s troubles — coming after a not-so impressive Pittsburgh performance — are indicative that his soaring start might be flattening a bit.

Aside from that, Bryzgalov’s problems were certainly indicative of how badly his teammates were playing against a Panthers team (5-7-4) that entered the game holding down the next-to-last spot in the Eastern Conference.

One of Florida’s losses came at the hands of the Flyers, a 7-1 beatdown in Sunrise, Fla. Since then, the Panthers have won twice at Wells Fargo Center.

Go figure.In this game, the Flyers didn’t figure on the scoreboard until Luke Schenn and Jakub Voracek scored third-period goals, which came far too late.

It was clear from the start that this could be a troubling game, as Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov rattled a slapshot off a post behind a slipping and sliding Bryzgalov 22 seconds into the game.

But then the Panthers commenced to really rattle the Flyers (8-10-1).

Huberdeau threw a spot-on pass to the top of the slot to an uncovered Peter Mueller, and his wrist shot at 8:15 of that first period struck all net.

Just 29 seconds later, the Flyers kicked into a defensive change, which didn’t look so good when Tomas Kopecky promptly burst into the attack zone with no defensemen in front of him. He easily completed the breakaway goal for 2-0.

It took just another minute and a half for Luke Schenn to turn the puck over at his blue line, and Huberdeau promptly sprung on another breakaway...only to be tackled by Kimmo Timonen.

That gave Huberdeau — one of the Panthers who beat Bryzgalov in Florida’s successful shootout round win Feb. 7 — the stage he craves. His approach looked like an Olympian free skate competition.

It left Bryzgalov to look like an amateur diver.

After that it was largely academic, though the Flyers did turn up the pressure at times. Try as they might, they couldn’t crack goalie Scott Clemmensen. And when Huberdeau scored a fourth Panthers goal on a power play at 11:46 of the second, everyone relaxed.

You do need your nights of rest amid a busy schedule like this, you know.